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rrebell; I have some bad news for you there, podna; I have a Varney F3 w/plastic body that is approaching fifty years of age and it runs a h*ll of a lot better than any of your blue box or red box or green box or purple box or whatever box Athearns; I've only run it once in the last 25 years and that was just to see if it would still run - that was seven years ago and it did -  got a little sparking from the wheels - they're brass - which rendered it a little sluggish at first but after the corrosion burned off it performed flawlessly.  It's the only piece of HO motive power I have; when I sold all my Bowser, and Hobbytown, and Cary/Mantua equipment when I went to N-Scale in 1980/81 I couldn't bear to part with it - it had been part of the train set that got me started in Model Railroading way back in 1962.  Offer me a couple of Athearns; I'll tell you where to put'em. cudaken; Thirty dollars was probably a might too much - at least ten and maybe even fifteen too much - for this turkey whatever it turns out to be but all may not necessarily be lost. Not a lot can be done with the power mechanism but there is perhaps some hope for the boiler if you care to expend a little money in the effort.  If my recollection serves me correctly a few years back - probably twenty or so - someone took this particular - or a similiar - Tyco boiler shell and affixed it to a either a Varney "Old Lady" or "Casey Jones", I don't recall just which one, and came away with a very freelanced - and unique - locomotive.  I'm not sure just exactly how he came into the possession of his boiler shell but his power unit had been acquired dirt cheap at a swap meet somewhere and so his major expense had been for lost-wax castings - these two mechanisms are currently being manufactured by Bowser who, by the way, also produces other 2-8-0s and 4-6-0s.  Some elementary lost-wax castings would give you a singularly individualistic locomotive - won't exactly look like a brass masterpiece but you could at least salvage some of your thirty smackers. I'm not sure I would give a blank check to the premise that one should never purchase a used Tyco, Bachmann, or Life-Like locomotive under any circumstances; it was not too awfully long ago that I saw a very accomplished modeler purchase a used Bachmann at a swap meet for $15.00; he was only interested in the boiler shell for use with a mechanism which, I guess, he already owned.  Some of these guys have been building and rebuilding for so long that they can work miracles from basket cases - I ain't exactly one of them but perhaps you could be at some time in the future. Just a suggestion.
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